Russian journalist uncovers Putin’s secret stake in Kremlin-backed super app MAX

A relative of Vladimir Putin owns a stake in the Russian tech giant VK, which in turn owns the new state-backed “everything app” MAX, independent investigative journalist Andrey Zakharov claimed on Wednesday.

Zakharov said that although VK had a complex ownership structure, its accounts for the first half of 2025 showed that its shareholders included the insurance company Sogaz. Prior to the war in Ukraine, Mikhail Shelomov, the son of one of Putin’s first cousins, was known to own a 12.47% stake in Sogaz through a St. Petersburg-based insurance company called Accept. 

Although Sogaz made its list of shareholders private after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Zakharov was able to access Accept’s accounts and learnt that Shelomov has retained his stake in the company, with its 2024 accounts showing that his shares were worth approximately the same then as they did in 2019.

Zakharov thus concluded that Shelomov still owned a stake in VK, and therefore in MAX. When Zakharov managed to reach Shelomov by phone to ask him what his connection to the messenger was, Shelomov reportedly said “none” before hanging up.

In addition to his stake in Sogaz, Shelomov also owns shares in Rossiya Bank, a controlling stake in which belongs to Putin’s friend Yury Kovalchuk, who also part owns VK. 

As investigative outlet Proekt revealed in 2019, Shelomov became a dollar billionaire in the late 2010s, but continued to spend his weekends at his dacha with an outdoor toilet, suggesting that he was simply a proxy holder of Putin’s wealth. 

The Russian authorities are promoting MAX, a state-backed messenger and “super app”, as an alternative to the foreign-owned messaging platforms the Kremlin continues to crack down upon, though critics have warned it could be used to record user activity, which could then be made available to the authorities.